US PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE and former vice president Joe Biden has called for an immediate and independent investigation into the death of a Georgia man who was shot while jogging in February.
Ahmaud Arbery, a 25-year-old black man was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia when he was chased down by a former police officer Gregory McMichael and his son Travis in their pickup truck.
Alleged footage of the incident, taken from within another vehicle, has since emerged across social media and prosecutors in Georgia have suggested a grand jury will decide whether charges should be brought against the former police officer.
A grand jury involves more than a dozen US citizens hearing evidence from an investigation, and who can subpeona witnesses, before then deciding whether criminal charges should be brought against an individual.
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democrat nominee who looks set to take on incumbent Donald Trump in November’s presidential election, has weighed in calling for a “swift, full and transparent investigation”.
He tweeted: “Ahmaud Arbery was killed in cold blood. My heart goes out to his family, who deserve justice and deserve it now. It is time for a swift, full, and transparent investigation into his murder.”
The footage shows a man in a white top jogging along a quiet road, swerving to avoid a white pick up truck, when two armed appear from the vehicle and confront him. A struggle ensues and the jogger is shot.
Neither Gregory nor Travis McMichael were arrested following the incident which occurred over two months ago on 23 February.
CNN news in the US reports that: “Tom Durden, the district attorney for the Atlantic Judicial Circuit, wrote in a news release [...] that he expects to present the case to the next available grand jury in Glynn County to consider whether charges are merited for those involved in Arbery’s death.”
Durden is the third prosecutor assigned to the case after previous prosecutors recused themselves over professional ties with the McMichaels.
The New York Times reports a letter from prosecutor, George E Barnhill who was previously assigned to the case argued there was “insufficient probable cause to arrest Mr. Arbery’s pursuers, arguing that they had acted legally under the state’s citizen arrest and self-defense statutes”.
The McMichaels claimed the 25-year-old was involved in a spate of burglaries in the neighbourhood and they confronted him as a result.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the Arbery family, said the video showed that a crime was committed by Arbery’s pursuers. “This is murder,” S. Lee Merritt said. “The series of events captured in this video confirm what all the evidence indicated prior to its release.”
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